The Childhood Drawer
by MissEmris
Summary: The Doctor and Amy find themselves tracking an alien in 2011 Leadworth, but when Amy bumps into someone whom she really wasn't expecting, childhood secrets are unearthed. Contains flashbacks, Jeff, some Amy/Doctor, and AU where the wedding never happened
1. So He Ate Fish Custard

_**So this story is going to start with a short bit of drabble about what might have happened when Amelia told her friends at school about the Doctor, and then I'm planning for it to escalate to an Amy/Doctor adventure back in Leadworth, which will all be connected with her childhood. Oh, and it's an AU where the wedding thing is being ignored. Otherwise, this could get complicated. Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, or the Doctor/Matt Smith (darn), or Amy Pond/Karen Gillan. OK?**_

_******_

Amelia walked into the classroom on Monday morning, a spring in her step, and made her way to her table. Her best friend had already arrived, and was smiling as she approached. Amelia's face was flushed and rosy and she seemed happier than she had in years.

"Guess what?" She gushed.

Mandy looked at her. "What, Amelia?"

She sat down. "You know the crack in my wall?" She tucked some ginger hair behind her ear. "A man came to fix it!"

Mandy grinned at her best friend. "Really? I told you someone would come! Was it a police man?"

"Well," Little Amelia frowned. "He was in a police _box_, but he said he was called the Doctor, so he can't have been a police man, really."

They both pulled out the trays beneath their desks and grabbed their books ready for their first lesson. "What do you mean he was in a box?" Mandy asked, getting out her pink pencil case. "I thought police men and doctors drove in cars."

"They do. But not this one." Amelia said, defiantly. "He was in a blue box, and it crashed in my back garden. He even said that there was a swimming pool and a library inside it."

Mandy laughed. "How big was it?"

Amy frowned, a little bit confused. "Well. It was quite small, actually. -But I _know_ he was telling the truth. He must have fitted them in somewhere."

"OK. What did he look like?"

"Well..." Amelia's mind was filled with images of the Doctor, so describing him wasn't hard. She been infatuated with him ever since he'd left on Saturday evening. "He was wearing a shirt and a tie, except the shirt was all dirty and ripped, and the tie was all twisted. And his hair was really messy-"

"But what did your aunt say about him? I didn't think she liked messy people!"

"Oh, my aunt didn't know he was there. It was night time, so she was out." Amelia explained matter of factly.

"Night time!" Mandy's eyes were wide. "Go on, Amelia."

"Well, that's what he looked like. And so he said he would fix the crack in my wall, but first he wanted something to eat, so I gave him an apple because he said they were his favourite, and then he spat it out-"

"Yuck!" Mandy wrinkled up her nose.

"And then he said he wanted yoghurt, so I gave him some, but he spat that out, too."

Mandy giggled, this time. "I don't like yoghurt, either."

"Nor do I, now."

"Why?"

"Because _he_ doesn't like it!"

"What else did you give him?"

"Umm... bacon and beans and bread and butter, but he didn't like any of them. So he ate fish

custard instead."

"Fish custard?" Mandy exclaimed, making a boy on the table next to them look round strangely. "Why would you eat that?"

"I don't know! He was funny!"

Mandy smiled and giggled. "OK then."

"And then he said that my name was like like a fairytale..." Amelia trailed off, her eyes slightly misty, the scene replaying in her mind.

"So how did he fix your wall?"

She snapped out of it. "Well!" She began, her eyes lighting up. "He opened it up with this magic wand he had, and there was a huge eye..."

"In your wall?" Mandy exclaimed.

"Um, no. He said it was across space."

Mandy frowned, a little lost. But she kept listening, anyway.

"And it kept saying that thing I told you the other day which I kept hearing in my sleep. _Prisoner zero has escaped, prisoner zero has escaped_, and then he closed it, and it was fixed! But he said that prisoner zero might have escaped into my house, but probably not."

"Who _is_ prisoner zero?"

Amelia frowned. "I don't know."

"So then what happened?"

"Well, he said that his box's engines were going to blow or something, and he ran back out into the garden, and-"

"Who did?" A friendly, interested voice asked, a schoolbag being plonked down on the table. Amelia and Mandy looked up to see Rory, who had just arrived, grinning.

"Hi Rory!" Amelia beamed.

"A police man-doctor who crashed in Amelia's garden and eats fish custard and fixed her wall!" Mandy said. "Shh! She's telling me about him!"

"Really?" Rory asked. "He fixed your wall, Amelia?" He sat down on her other side.

"Shh!" Mandy told him. "Go on, Amelia."

She smiled at Rory, and then continued. "So he ran back out to his box, and then he said he had to fix it by going forward in time for a bit."

"-He has a time machine, too?" Mandy asked.

"Yes! The box is a time machine. And he said I could go with him, and he would be back in five minutes."

Rory's eyes lit up. "Really? Where did you go?"

For a moment, Amelia was tempted to make something up. "Mars? The moon? Leadworth a hundred years in the future? The possibilities of the amazing adventures she could have had with him flashed behind her eyes. But, no. If she made something up now, it would ruin it when he _did_ come back for her.

"Well... he didn't come back." She admitted. "But he will! Something probably just went wrong with his engines, or something." She crossed her arms.

"When he comes, can I go too?" Rory asked, grinning.

Amelia paused... It was supposed to be just her and him, the amazing adventures of Amelia and the raggedy Doctor. But still... she couldn't say no to _Rory_. "Um, well. OK. You can come."

"Cool!"

And then the teacher called for silence, and Jeff arrived twenty minutes late, as usual, and the day went by. Then more days. Then weeks. And months. And her raggedy Doctor still didn't come back.

**

**A/N: Next chapter will be Amy and the Doctor (while she's travelling with him) arriving in Leadworth because of some strange alien signals...**


	2. Why Have You Brought Us Here?

The TARDIS doors swung open, letting a beam of summer's day light flood into the huge interior. Amy squinted as she stepped out of the TARDIS, dressed in a mini-skirt, which was quickly becoming the norm, and a blue tank top and denim jacket.

The Doctor, looking particularly satisfied with his parking, and also narrowing his eyes against the bright sunlight, stepped out beside her, pulling the doors shut with a creak. "So! What do you think?"

Amy's face fell, surveying her surroundings with growing disappointment. "What do you mean, what do I think?" She turned to him, raising her eyebrows.

"Well..." He looked at her, his eyes innocent, his voice slightly hurt at her disregard for where he'd brought her. Although, he wasn't exactly sure of where they were himself, yet. "Y'know. Good, bad? Too hot? Too many trees? Not enough trees? Although if you _had_ wanted trees, then-"

"Doctor." Her tone was flat. "You've brought us to Leadworth." She put her hands on her hips.

His eyes grew wide, and he took a few steps forward into the patch of grass next to the duck pond that was the village green, swirling around to face her. "No..." He breathed.

"Yes."

"But that's-"

"Why are we here?"

He gulped at her stern eyes. "This is where the TARDIS picked up the signals..."

"What signals?" She took a few steps forward to stand next to him, flicking her red hair over her shoulder and looking around at the post office, the tiny car park, the duck pond, the phone box, that same ice cream van. She'd been pretty sure when she'd left with the Doctor that she never wanted to see any of those things again. Ever.

"The readings... the Freglashian transport beam residual atmospheric traces..."

"What?"

"It's important." He explained, reaching into his jacket for the sonic screwdriver and pulling it out, throwing it up and catching it, as if trying to be suave. Although he did look rather good when he did that... "The Freglashians are bad news, and if they've been manifesting around here..."

"But why _my_ village?" Amy asked. "Isn't that a bit of a coincedence?"

"Isn't it just? Let's follow the traces and see, shall we?"

He held the sonic in front of him, and set off towards the opposite side of the green, as if there was an invisible force pulling him along, drawing him in. Amy followed, crossing her arms and huffing at the all too familiar surroundings.

Her mind wandered. What time zone were they in? If they were here during the fourteen year period of time between fish custard and the beginning of Amy's travels with the Doctor, then this could be disastrous. -What if she met herself? What would happen? The whole of reality would probably go bang in a big nuclear timey-wimey explosion, if some of the things the Doctor had been telling her about paradoxes were true... Amy almost tripped on a hillock of grass, and yelped, regaining her footing and recovering as much dignity as possible as she set herself upright again.

The Doctor had turned to look at her, hearing her yelp.

She stared him out. "What? I'm fine!"

He shook his head. "Pond... somehow managing to get into some sort of trouble even whilst walking over a village green..."

She glowered, but half way through the glare turned into a smile. She couldn't help it.

He grinned at her, and turned back around to continue following this mysterious trail.

She caught up with him properly then, walking by his side. "So what year is it?" She asked casually, as they both stepped over the low railings at the edge of the green.

"Oh, I don't know..." He said, his eyes and full concentration on the screwdriver. "Somewhere around 2011, maybe? Can't say exactly, too busy with thi-i-i-" His words turned into a sort of "eeeee!" At the end, as the signal from the screwdriver pulled him forwards very, very fast. Amy ran to keep up at he shot off across the road.

Amy noticed people were staring at them now. _What's Amy Pond doing running around with that __nutter? What will her aunt say?_ She could imagine their thoughts. Normally, she didn't really care what people thought of her. But this... if word got back to her aunt that she was running around with a strange guy in a bow tie and braces with a weird little buzzing wand thing, who also looked like he was on a caffeine high, then she would have a lot of explaining to do. For now, she ignored the strange stares they were getting, saving the consequences of running around with her raggedy Doctor in broad daylight in Leadworth for later.

"So where's it headed?" She asked the Doctor, as he stopped, reaching the pavement, looking at the screwdriver, squinting, and then looking up again, surveying the street, running a hand through his hair, doing a turn.

"Umm... I don't know. Let's hazard a guess!" And he ran off in the direction of a house.

"Doctor!" Amy recognised the house as Jeff's, and reached out a hand after him. But he was already too far away. "Ah, stuff it." She muttered, and started off after him.

She caught up with him at the front door, the light from the now gone-completely-crazy-sonic screwdriver lighting up his face. He was grinning.

"I think we're getting close, Amy." He said, peering up at the house. "Very, very close.."

"Aren't you gonna ring the doorbell?"

"Ah!" He pressed it, and the resounding trill from inside reached Amy's ears. She only had a second to consider the idea that Jeff might open the door and come face to face with her, before the door swung open.

And yes, it was Jeff.

His face lit up when he saw Amy. A wide grin covered his face, which was followed quickly by raised eyebrows of incredulity. "Amy!" He turned to the Doctor. "And you! It's you- again! The guy who gave me that job with NASA-"

"Oh, so you picked NASA, did you?" The Doctor chirped, hopping inside, screwdriver still in front of him. "I imagine that was out of- what? Fifty offers? Seventy? I wouldn't be surprised if it was one hundred after what you did that day, Jeff m'boy!" But he wasn't really putting his heart into the rambles. He was scanning the hallway.

"Sorry-" Said Amy. "He does this. We were just looking for..."

"Aliens?" Jeff asked.

"Right you are, Jeff!" The Doctor beamed. "Mind if we go through to the lounge?" But he was already haring off.

"Wait, hang on, it might be better if Amy stayed out of the lounge-"

Amy caught his words as she followed after the Doctor, but didn't have time to register them before she was stepping through the door into the old lounge, her excited smile slipping off of her face as if it had been putty.

Her mouth dropped open at the sight inside.

"Oh."

**

**A/N: Please review, and I will give you a cyber cookie! Thanks for reading, too. s**


	3. He's Not Real

The Doctor whirled through the room, spouting out enough technobabble to sink a ship, and waving the sonic in every corner. He then ran from the room and out into the garden with a cry. "Come on, Amy! Out here!"

But Amy didn't even notice.

And neither did the slim blonde girl sitting on the sofa, her heavily make up-ed eyes transfixed on Amy. Eyes that Amy had come to hate.

Amy could feel her throat start to constrict, feel her fists begin to ball up. But then she felt a restraining hand on her shoulder, and knew without looking that it was Jeff. She let her hands go limp again, and breathed out.

"Amy." Squeaked the girl.

Amy had to wait a few seconds so that her voice wouldn't come out strangled, and replied in the calmest voice possible.

"Mandy."

Little Amelia had waited. She'd waited for days, she'd waited for weeks, she'd waited for months.

And now her waiting time had even lapsed into years. Three whole years of thoughts and dreams and games and drawings and stories about her raggedy Doctor infatuating her life. She rarely thought of anything else, unless it was exams at school, or her birthday. But even then, she couldn't help thinking that he should be there. On her birthdays, she had no family but her aunt, who's face had slowly become more and more creased with worry lines about her niece's sanity. Everything would be so much more exciting... so much more _alive_, if he was there.

Even Rory, Mandy and Jeff were starting to worry about her, and didn't protest when Amelia told them that her aunt was taking her to see a person who helps mad people. They would all be going off to secondary school soon, after all...

"Ameli- Amy?" Mandy had said one day as they walked home from school. Amelia had asked them all to call her Amy one day, telling them that "Amelia" only sounded right when _he_ said it. Like a fairytale.

"Yes?" Amy said, smiling at her. Despite her worries about when her Doctor would return for her, Amy was genuinely a nice person, even if sometimes it was hard to maintain that.

Mandy looked down at her feet. She seemed a little uncomfortable.

"What's wrong?" Amy asked, frowning.

"It just.. Amy... when are you going to forget about this raggedy Doctor?"

Amy's eyes widened.

Mandy's cheeks coloured, but she continued. "It's not right, Amy, not any more. We're in year six, and we'll be in secondary school soon. All the other girls are saying that your really weird, still playing with dolls and all that..."

"What? But I'm not _just_ playing with dolls. And I'm not going to forget about him- why would I? If I left, suddenly, would you forget about me?"

"But that's not the same! You're my friend, you're real-"

Amy's voice rose a little bit. "What? But he's real, too! He's _my_ friend, and he's going to come back, one of these days!" But as the words came from her mouth, the very words that she'd repeated so many times over the last three years, the words that she had thought so much that they'd become as familiar as breathing, she couldn't help but think, for the first time, _what if he wasn't? What if he'd abandoned her?_ She shook her head.

"Amy, the other girls say some really horrible stuff about you. I think you should stop talking about him, at least in school. _Please_-"

Amy stopped still, turning to her friend. "No. I'm not going to. I won't let them boss me around just by being mean about me."

Mandy paused for a few moments, the look in her eyes almost pitying. "Amy." Mandy dropped the bombshell. "He's not real."

The words echoed through Amy's head like poisonous venom.

"He never was real. Imaginary friends are for little kids-"

Amy screwed up her eyes in an effort not to burst into tears, but she had to turn away eventually because she could feel the tears coming, and she didn't want Mandy to see her crying. Heat was rising to her face along with the salty water in her eyes, and her lip juddered. "He _is_ real." Amy managed. "And he promised." And with that, she felt her legs begin to move, and before she knew it she was running, running down the road towards her house at a rate of knots, the calls from Mandy behind her bouncing off of her ears as if a protective shell had formed around her.

But that was just the start.

Grown up Amy and Mandy's eyes were locked. Those eyes, grey with little flecks of green and blue, would always remind Amy of the pain of her childhood. Some time around her eighteenth birthday, when she'd first decided to start work as a kissogram, was when she's locked away all of those painful memories. She'd thought of it as the Childhood Drawer, a place where she could put all the memories, store them away at the back of her mind and never think of again. She'd close the drawer and leave it to gather dust. Because of course, it was impossible to erase memories. Locking them up like old pieces of painful junk was the easier option. And in some ways, the harder option too, she supposed. It would have been so easy to just rifle through them all and cry, and just keep crying, on and on and on, until she'd run out of tears.

But she hadn't. She'd managed to forget. Or at least, put up a barrier between her conscious mind and the Childhood Drawer. The first time this drawer had been opened was when the Doctor had returned the first time. When he'd broken into her house, when they'd saved the world from the Atraxi and Prisoner Zero. The second time was when he'd returned two years later, but it had quickly been closed again, almost healed, by the wonders he had shown her. And by the Doctor himself, by just being there...

The third time the Childhood Drawer had been opened was now, as she stared into the face of the childhood friend who'd caused her so much pain. But it still hadn't been opened all the way. The full extent of pain that Mandy had caused her hadn't graced Amy's mind yet.

She managed to speak after what seemed like hours of tense silence. "What are you doing here?"

Mandy's mouth was tight. "Well, what are you doing here?"

Amy opened her mouth, then closed it again. Then said to Jeff, "What is she doing here?"

Jeff looked down at the carpet. "Well, uhh, Amy...."

Amy frowned, piercing him with her stare.

"Jeff and I are seeing each other." Mandy told her, and her tone was almost contemptuous. "Aren't we, Jeff?"

Jeff nodded.

Amy's eyes narrowed, and she could have sworn her insides ached a little bit. "I never wanted to see you again." She whispered to Mandy. "_Never_." And their eyes met, in a stare of deep hurt.

"Amy! You really want to come out here!" The Doctor's words floated in from outside.

Amy didn't move for a second.

"Amy!" The Doctor called again.

She looked at Jeff, then looked back at Mandy, her throat constricting once more, and then followed the familiar voice outside. The Doctor's voice, to her, was like music. Like everything that was warm and friendly and lovely. And it was a relief to see him again, even after such a short while. Her insides stopped aching. She was able to relax.

"So, Amy. What do you make of this?"

**A/N: Next time: The Doctor and Amy delve deeper into the alien trace mystery..... More of Amy's past is revealed... And the Doctor falls over. Please review, comments, what you liked, what you didn't like, constructive criticism. Thanks!**


	4. Hide and Seek!

The Doctor was turning on the spot, both hands in the air, index fingers raised, as if he was on the brink of a breakthrough. His fingers grasped the air, trying to clutch it between his forefinger and thumb, but then sliding them together as though the air was sand, slipping through his fingers. All the time, there was that look on his face. That Doctor-ish _come on... what am I missing?_

He began sniffing, frowning as he did so, moving slightly, as if to get a better angle. A slight breeze played through the trees, making the leaves ripple. Amy squinted at them: it almost looked like something was moving within...

"Can you smell that, Amy?"

She frowned. "What?"

"Shhh!" He snapped, completely immersed in looking for... well. Amy hadn't a clue. He was circling her, his eyes wide. "It's like... it's like blueberries, but a bit- a bit-"

Amy sniffed the air, and the smell seeped into her system. She coughed. "Spicy?"

"Ah!" He said. "Yeeess... like blueberries, but a little more spicy!" He jogged to the house, bellowing, "Jeff! Do you have a blueberry tree?"

_A blueberry tree?_

"Um... I don't think so." Came the reply.

"Great!" The Doctor ran back to Amy, his brown eyes wide, his fingers starting to jiggle about as if with frustration. "OK, come on, where would it be hiding-?" He span around, regarding the huge garden filled with bushes and trees and flowers with narrowed eyes.

Amy realised what he had said- _where could it be hiding? _Although she wasn't sure what _"it" _was, she knew for a fact that this garden was the best place for hiding places that there could be. It was _the_ hide and seek garden, the place where her and friends would play after schools, on lazy summer days. There were dozens of hidden nooks and crannies where something child-sized, or probably bigger, could hide. Like a labyrinth.

Normally, a harmless one.

Amy laid a hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "Where what could be hiding?"

He turned to her, putting a hand on her shoulder too, and looking her in the eyes seriously. "I might be wrong, but if I'm right, and the teleportation traces are correctly scented, then..." he lowered his voice, "A Freglashian."

She raised her eyebrows. "Am I expected to know what that is?"

He opened his mouth to answer her, but swiftly closed it again and creased his brow, whirling around. "They're nasty. Nasty things. That's all you need to know. And one of them is hiding in this very garden. We just need to know where..."

"There are plenty of hiding places."

"We can't afford to search the whole garden; it's too big. It will have chosen the best hiding place- it's instincts will have run riot- if we're lucky, it'll be angry."

"_What_? How is that _lucky_?"

"Because then it's just straightforward: predictable. If it's _scared.."_ He trailed off as if he was telling a ghost tale. "That would be a whole different story." Then he grinned, and clapped his hands together, putting on a new spurt of energy. "So! Hiding places! Any ideas?"

Amy found her vision blurring, her head rocked with a memory-

~flashback~

Little Amy, Rory, Jeff and Mandy were running through Jeff's garden, laughing, the sun beating down on their backs, glinting off of Amy's red hair.

"Hide and seek!" She called out to her friends, and they all scattered, giggling. "Bagsy not it!"

The sunlight shone through the leaves on a willow tree as Amy pushed them aside, her ears welcoming the friendly rustle, and she stepped through, into a little pathway hidden by bushes. She skipped along it, pushing branches out of the way, the undergrowth getting more dense by the second.

Her eyes widened in delight as she saw an opening: a small pond, rushes growing around it, water like a smooth mirror. Then there were more trees, and a pile of logs to one side. She chuckled to herself and crouched down on the other side of the log pile, screwing up her face at a beetle creeping underneath a log. Her ankles started to hurt from crouching after a while, but still nobody found her. It was hot. She wiped her brow.

Then she froze as she heard footsteps on the other side of the logs, and Mandy's voice- "Jeff!" She giggled. "Jeff, are you here?"

Amy had no time to move before a blonde head appeared over the top of the log pile. The flirty smile on Mandy's face vanished, to be replaced with a sneer. "Oh."

Amy had known that Mandy was going to be like this. When they were with Jeff and Rory, everything was fine- she was alright, as if the boys calmed her, or were a barrier. When the two were alone- well. Then her true colours shone.

"Mandy- can I just talk to you-"

"What?"

"Why are you being like this? What have I done wrong?"

She frowned, and moved away, so that Amy could no longer see her. "You know what you've done wrong. You're making me look like a loser, hanging around with a mad girl."

And Amy remembered such a pang in her chest, it felt like someone had punched her. Hard. The pain became real and Amy almost reeled over, as she rocked back into reality.

~End flashback~

"Amy!" The Doctor was looking down at her, slightly panicked. "What's wrong?" He shone the sonic in her eyes, and it was only then that she realised that she was at an angle. Lying in his arms. The world was slowly blurring back into view in the background, and the pain was leaving, just a slight ache now. It would be gone in a few seconds.

It was the Doctor's kind eyes which made her feel able to stand up again.

"What happened?" The Doctor asked, gently, laying a hand on her shoulder.

Amy frowned. "I don't know. Nothing. I'm fine."

"It might have been the Freglashian residue, not uncommon-"

"_No_." She really wasn't feeling able to take one of his monologues. "I'm fine, Doctor, OK? And I know the best hiding place."

There was still concern in his eyes, but he stowed it away for the moment, and looked interested. "Oh, really? Care to show me?"

"This way." Amy headed towards the willow tree.


	5. Feeding on Nightmares

The branches were long, trailing to the ground, and much thicker than they had been when she was a child. The feel of them brushing along her skin almost brought tears to her eyes. Once she was through the barrier of branches, she turned to see the Doctor getting in a pickle. He pushed some branches out of the way, and tried to run past before they pinged back, but they proved too fast, and he got wacked in the shoulder. Then his ankle got caught in a bush and he almost tripped, but managed to right himself just in time. Once he got through, he straightened his bow tie and grinned.

Amy grinned too, suddenly happy. She figured she must be having ridiculous mood swings, but the sorrow that she'd felt before had been burned out by just watching the Doctor for a few minutes.

She smiled at him.

"What?" He said, smiling back. "It's not funny!"

"If you say so." She turned back around, and recognised the little path which she'd run down when she was little. Everything about it seemed much smaller, now. "OK. Down here."

The sun which had beamed through the trees just a few minutes earlier was slowly dimming to cloudy light, seeping through the garden and casting the Doctor and Amy into shadow. It was like the garden knew the tension. They crept down the path, making their movements lighter with every step.

"Doctor." Amy whispered. "What _is_ a Freglashian?"

"Horrible creature. Feeds on bad dreams. Shouldn't be on Earth."

"Bad dreams?" Amy murmured as they reached the end of the path. "Like dreams at night?"

"Yes! It seems Earth is the best spot for that, believe it or not. Humans have over-active imaginations. -Some of them, anyway." He pushed a branch out of the way, casting a beam of sunlight onto his face.

Amy frowned. "How can it _feed_ on bad dreams? Does it, like, creep into your bedroom?"

"Seems so."

They reached the end of the path, and Amy turned to face the Doctor, blocking his path. "Like the BFG?"

"Amy..." His eyes suddenly widened.

"Yes, OK, I've read the BFG. But it's a classic!" She hissed. "Anyway, this really isn't the time or place, Doctor."

"I know." He nodded at the space behind her, his hands held up, his body stock still.

Amy's face dropped, and slowly, she turned, her gaze moving upwards into the deep, black, darkness of a huge creature. Her breath caught in her throat, and time seemed to freeze.

She bit back the urge to scream.

In one, sweeping movement, it raised its sleek head and torso, looming over her like a deathly shadow, its legs kicking out. The only thing Amy could relate it to, in that terrified moment, was a horse. A huge, black, night mare. Its feet crashed back down onto the ground, kicking up dust, and its eyes narrowed. Its presence was starting to make her feel weak, and she couldn't seem to move for fear of what it would do to her. _Please, don't come any closer... _

"Amy! We've got to-" He grabbed her hand and spun her round, her eyes wide.

She found the Doctor jerking her back up the path, the creature behind them deciding to follow. Amy could hear its heavy hoof beats, the whoosh of its body brushing against the overhanging tree. The Doctor and Amy tumbled out onto the grass, splaying their arms wide, as they felt a gush of air from behind them.

And then the Doctor was pulling Amy down, to where they crashed against the grass, a shadow rushing over their heads, casting them into darkness for a few surreal seconds, Amy squeezing her eyes tight shut, the rush of wings deafening her. She looked up, just in time to see the night mare swoop over the house, and vanish.

Amy breathed hard, her eyes fixed on the point where the creature had disappeared, pushing hair out of her eyes. The Doctor, his hand firmly in hers, began to laugh.

"Ha! Did you see that?"

"That was a Freglashian!" Amy gushed, as he helped her stand up. She shielded her eyes, just to get a better look at the spot where the creature had disappeared. Then she began to laugh too.

Then she froze. Her lips mouthed the name. "Mandy."

Jeff and Mandy were standing on the patio, staring at them, open mouthed.


End file.
